A new walk-in cooler and a -80°C freezer, gifted to the Labasa Hospital recently, is expected to improve reagents storage capacity and facilitate clinical laboratory work.
Representing the Ty-FIVE Consortium at the official handover of the machines on Tuesday last week, Murdoch Children Institute’s Paediatrician, Dr Kim Mulholland, said they were privileged to optimise health care in Fiji.
“From our point of view, we are privileged to work with the health sector here to optimise health care in Fiji,” Dr Mulholland said.
Also speaking at the handover, Labasa Hospital’s Laboratory Superintendent Makarita Baleinadogo commended the donations adding the hospital’s laboratory could now accommodate more items to store. P
rior to the walk-in cooler, securing storage space for laboratory reagents and consumables was a great challenge in the hospital.
With the walk-in cooler, up to six months’ worth of supply can now be stored, enabling the laboratory to carry out its services more regularly.
The Ty-FIVE consortium is a partnership between the Ministry of Health and Medical Services of Fiji, the International Vaccine Institute, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the University of Melbourne.
The Ty-FIVE consortium is strengthening the typhoid surveillance system and will launch a public health mass vaccination campaign against typhoid in the Northern Division this year to decrease disease burden.
